I dream of a cartridge MAME console

[lucifershalo]

Being a fan and collector of 8 bit cartridge console
I would love to have a MAME console
with illustrated label cartridge of MAME roms to play 80s arcade games.....

[treismac]

A cartridge based MAME console that would play '80s arcade games would indeed be beyond incredible. Sadly, this console will most likely never happen since you can download arcade games on the current generation's systems, which is a shame because there is an undeniable magic to holding, admiring, and popping in a video game cartridge.

[weirdguy]

Consolized Neo Geo MVS ?

[Clownzilla]

I have wanted to build a dedicated MAME console box for a while. Not just a PC with MAME on it but an actual compact (and good looking) game box (still PC based) with MAME requirements in mind. USB hookups in the right places, a set of custom made controllers with most of the arcade control schemes covered (joysticks, spinners, wheels, accelerator peddles, dual joysticks, etc.), and a very simplistic front-end interface (with options to tweak games as necessary). I guess a cartridge isn't important for me, just the ease of being able to pick up and play like a console:)

[jb143]

with illustrated label cartridge of MAME roms to play 80s arcade games.....

A single cartridge today could hold hundreds if not thousands of '80s arcade roms. You could do like Clownzilla suggests and make a small PC set up to look and act like a console. If you need physical media to insert and remove then you could very easily make it a disc based system. Use lightscribe and you could make all sorts of cool labels for the discs. The only problem though is that each disc would only have a 43kB file on it.LOL

Another option might be to buy a lot of old USB flash drives and a label maker.

[Clownzilla]

I guess if your handy with a little case modification you could take old cheap game carts, gut them, and somehow attach a USB drive inside where it sticks out approximately the same length that the connector pins would have. Build a MAME console PC like usual but keep a spot open to cut out a portion of the case that would fit the cartridge. Attach a USB female jack inside the cutout section where the cart USB would line up and it would feel like inserting a cartridge. You just have to make sure that the cartridges are all built the same so everything will line up. Sure, it would be a lot of work but it would be a pretty sweet retro game system.

[Jorpho]

If you really want to be "cheap", you could probably rig something up Odyssey-style: just write a program that runs a different MAME ROM depending on, say, which two pins on your computer's parallel port are bridged. Then you could make "cartridges" that contain no data and do nothing but bridge pins on the parallel port!

[APE992]

I suppose you could create an extremely stripped down version of Linux to load MAME within seconds on some sort of micro ATX board. "Cartridges" would be best handled as some sort of flash memory.

For sake of being retro you could modify an old Coleco or Atari cart with an edge connector for the "cartridge" but it wouldn't be very economical. Not sure if there would even be a market for something like this given how sue happy people are about IP that isn't even theirs.

[StealthLurker]

Well they keep trying to make such devices in China... not quite there yet, but getting better with each iteration. The last one I picked up was the GameBox. Not too shabby but definitely not there yet.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108550.40

There's a new one on DealExtreme that seems to offer better functionality. Once there are more reviews on it I might pick it up.

There have also been mods in the past where people have taken an NES console case and rigged a PC inside. Cart bay pops out a sliding CD tray. Front control ports wired to USB. The thing was rigged to play NES ROMS. Not the one I just described, but similar idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdG1I5o3l9I

.

[Ze_ro]

Cartridges don't really make a whole lot of sense in this respect.... but If you were to find a large batch of small Compact Flash cards, you could make your own label art and stick a different ROM on each of them.

A more elegant solution would be to set up a computer that just booted into HyperSpin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-xdeUmuBKo). All that video and artwork must take up a ton of hard drive space, but it's one of the best looking front ends I've ever seen.

--Zero

[Ed Oscuro]

There is such a thing...it's called a supergun ;P

Beyond that, I don't see much reason to try to monetize MAME again. If it was running the original code without emulation, that would be neat and possibly worthwhile. Emulation, though, I could do without since I already have MAME and some PCBs.

A more elegant solution would be to set up a computer that just booted into HyperSpin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-xdeUmuBKo).
That is neat, but the complete opposite of my idea of "elegant." Elegant would be a front end that used scanline emulation and screen curvature emulation, artwork, etc. to make it seem as if you were in front of a real machine. The stuff HyperSpin appears to be trying is also being done (last I tried it) to some degree by GameTap, though not with much more success.

[Jorpho]

Not so far off from Ultracade, is it? The animated marquee artwork is darn impressive, though.

[StealthLurker]

Elegant would be a front end that used scanline emulation and screen curvature emulation, artwork, etc. to make it seem as if you were in front of a real machine


If you were using a real arcade CRT monitor in a MAME cab, why would you need scanline and curvature emulation?


.

[Ed Oscuro]

If you were using a real arcade CRT monitor in a MAME cab, why would you need scanline and curvature emulation?


.
If you were actually lurking you'd know - the OP is clearly talking about a system for use on televisions (which are increasingly flat panels these days). The post I was replying to was for a front-end which was trying to recreate arcade look as well. And even for my supergun, I find myself using a flat-panel CRT monitor, and I don't use scanlines or get curvature on it (suits me pretty well though).

Yeah - if everybody could use a real arcade CRT monitor, why would anybody need scanline and curvature emulation? Why would I suggest anything so useless? Anybody who is using a real arcade CRT monitor is not going to care about any of this - they can already get an ArcadeVGA (or similar) and be set.